During cardiac care and cardiac rehabilitation, patients are subject to frequent examinations of the chest area, especially for attachment of electrodes to which are connected heart monitors for measuring the strength of the heart under a variety of circumstances. Up until now, very little thought or consideration have been given to the personal needs of the female cardiac patient, whose modesty presents an entirely different set of problems from that of the male patient.
For example, while males can be stress tested bare chested, female cardiac patients required to take stress tests have very few choices of torso-covering clothing, none of which are suitable. The options known to the present inventor include the standard hospital gown, which is too long for many female patients and, since it opens in the rear, provides no access to the chest area. Moreover, most hospital gowns tend to be very bulky, since they have to fit a wide variety of patients. This renders them ugly and uncomfortable, particularly during exercise. To simply wear a brassiere provides little advantage with respect to modesty. Webbing cover-ups are also used, but these are expensive single-use garments which tend to be constricting and uncomfortable.
A further difficulty with most of the clothing available to cardiac patients is posed by the fact that patients in high-level cardiac care frequently must wear a transmitter connected to electrodes that are attached to the torso. Males can carry the transmitter in a pocket of their pajamas or the like. At present, female patients typically wear the transmitter in a pouch suspended from the neck like a necklace by cloth straps secured by "VELCRO" brand closures (synthetic materials which adhere when pressed together). Alternatively, the transmitter is wrapped in a cloth and pinned to the gown or put in a belt with a pouch. Each of these possibilities is awkward. If a female patient allows the transmitter to hang loose on a necklace, the weight frequently pulls the electrodes off. Furthermore, the "VELCRO" brand closures that are used to secure the cloth straps often catch in the patient's hair or earrings. If the transmitter is pinned to the gown, it pulls on the garment causing discomfort and poor fit. The belt alternative is uncomfortable and inconvenient.
These difficulties are particularly exacerbated when the transmitter and electrodes must be worn during rehabilitative exercise, as is common.
The Angelica Corp. of St. Louis, Missouri makes an intensive care unit "(ICU)" gown which includes VELCRO brand closures for the back and on the sleeves, and which includes a "telemetery [sic] pocket . . . located on the center chest portion of the gown." This gown would appear to have been developed in response to some of the same concerns which motivated Applicant's invention. However, the Angelica gown is not form-fitting, is unattractive, and is evidently intended for "one-size-fits-all" use (as it is available only in large size). The placement of the pocket on this gown is not optimal. To have the telemetry equipment resting directly on the patient's chest is undesirable. Even if this location were generally acceptable, it would not suit all patients due to their variation in size. Nor would a gown of this type be suitable for exercise, as to fit all patients it would have to be must too big for most of them. Furthermore, the Angelica gown does not provide ready front access, needed to place and check on the monitoring electrodes.